Monday, November 12, 2007

Seeing how the human race runs itself on stupidity by trial and error it has kept me wondering who is doing the most good and who is doing the most evil.

A few months ago I read about Mr. Estrada's verdict. What made me pity him was not how stupid the government was in supporting him or how ignorant the Filipinos were in electing him or how he himself was dubbed stupid. It was the fact that much smarter people allowed this to happen.

It dawned on me that Estrada isn't as stupid as he looks. I've known a lot of people like him all my life. I can honestly say that I am not as smart as, say, our high school valedictorian or my college cum laude but I have known some of these throw their lives away by being too ambitious. Instead of using their expertise for the good of everyone - the very people who have entrusted their fate in their hands - they use it for their own selfish needs and to even think people like these who are supposedly smarter than the rest of us would have the exceptionally heightened awareness between good and bad. Yet half of them are where they NOT supposed to be - behind bars. It's really disappointing for me to see them there.

We read in the news about government officials "misappropriating funds" or some other more politically dignified term but what I consider the biggest crime in humanity is the misappropriation of intellect - using your smarts other than what it is ethically intended. Instead of building a better economy they build multi-million beach houses or buy a million peso SUV with a V8 engine that costs 4,000 pesos a day to refuel. They didn't bother to notice that the road that they are running on is full of potholes because they are riding on the two million pesos that was supposed to be used to fix that damn road. But then again, if you're on a two million peso SUV with a state-of-the-art suspension system you wouldn't feel the potholes in the first place.

Back to the first thing I said here, who does the most good and the most evil? This is more of an irony thing to me. It appears that the people doing the most good - at least for themselves - are the greedy, self-centered bastards robbing the people on the streets, selling drugs and taking our taxes. Why? They were smart enough to band together, share their wealth and protect each other.

The good people? Since time began, helping others isn't always a good man's notable attributes. Oppression has always been the good people's strongest AND weakest enemy. It is a strong enemy because it only takes one man with a gun to strike down a crowd of many without a single shot being fired. It is weak because one evil is powerless against the many good people it threatens. But most of us do not realize it. We are more concerned with our own individual well being than that of everyone else's and here is this one evil with nothing to lose and only appears unstoppable because we allow it to be. This isn't about human weakness but rather more on human passivity.

If indeed we are really GOOD people of this country and of this earth why let evil run it?

Monday, November 05, 2007

It had been a long week. A need to unwind was on her mind. A phone call here and a phone call there with quick text messages in between it was set.

There she was with her tall athletically toned frame with every privilege beauty bestowed. A ruffled white mini added to the sensuality of her long tanned legs. A lavender halter highlighting her broad and yet feminine shoulders. A bikini line on her back was barely visible. Not that it mattered since it was too dark to for anyone to notice. Her doll-like face only served to amplify her stunning chinky eyes with lavender mascara - but just a little. One can never be TOO beautiful.

She enters the stuffy club room - the walls pounding to the House beat of DJ Kaskade. The stench was a mix of cigarette smoke on cotton and men's cologne. This is going to stick when I get home. She thought not noticing her expensive perfume, her nose now immune, was strong enough to project her presence in the club - a sweet and pleasant smell probably mixed with pheromones in the chemicals.

An occasional familiar face here and there and an exchange of pretentious kisses, smiles, nods and idle chatter follows. Of course, anyone this beautiful is bound to have "friends" - many of them.

Her friends find a comfortable table space to unwind while a part of her group leaves to survey the dance floor. She stands behind - just a little beside - her girlfriend and leans over mumbling something while absentmindedly and discreetly scanning the room at the corner of her eyes. Her all too pretentious smile tries to hide the deep instinctive thought that someone might notice her. A familiar face? An ex-boyfriend? Some good looking hunk to while away the evening? And maybe, just maybe, if her better judgment or otherwise permits it, perhaps all the way until morning.

She sees someone in the crowd... waving at her... calling out her name but she can only read his lips saying her name.

She excuses herself. She walks away with an elegant gait and disappears beyond the crowd, beyond the fog and beyond the smoke. Perhaps the dance floor for starters? A drink or maybe two?

It had been just another night out at the club. This is where the party begins...

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Of course, you'd have to be alive to die. But that's not the pun intended here. This is a more in-your-face-cut-the-crap-i-know-why-you're-here type of shit.

I quoted the above line from some unknown - maybe Pinoy - author highlighting how Hallow's Eve has been somewhat of a national bank account-bragging phenomenon in most parts. As I walk around the crowded cemetery of an upscale cemetery I can see how the death of loved ones often involved extravagant displays of resting places. One grave actually had an air conditioned room and a second story! It makes you wonder, why would the dead need that?! Oh, they don't, it's probably some rich old fart who wants to show friends how much he invested in his dead wife. It kinda makes me wonder if he did it because he's glad she's dead. ;) Oh, let's not forget the hormonally-charged spoiled brats and grandbrats frolicking around and socializing with the next door dead guy's relatives. Probably with the intention of getting getting a date and getting laid on that night.

Also, what's the deal with suicide victims? It makes me wonder: "What do they need a priest for? The person committed suicide! He knows and everyone knows he/she's going to hell!" What a bunch of hypocritical bullcrap our culture tries to instill! Of course, if you get free drinks and snacks and probably a small banquet of food, who's complaining? It should be the freeloaders who rolls over and drop dead!

All Souls and All Saints is just like any regular party where it's just a means of seeing and to be seen. A chance for someone to be someone. This is yet another set of occasions that have lost their meaning.

Do I have a problem with this? Probably not. I'm just saying it as it is just in case it wasn't so clear already. This is me exposing hypocrisy in this country once again.